Frazz by Jef Mallett for October 12, 2024

Excellent, Jef — I bet you chase a lot of folks to the dictionary!

People who confuse etymology and entomology bug me in ways for which I have no words!

(not mine: I steal good stuff like this)

An entomologist is a person who studies insects.

You don’t use the word “etymology” to look up another word’s etymology, you just look up the word in question in a dictionary – so I don’t get this one.

If you studied the ancient tree-herders of Middle Earth, would that be Ent-omology..?

What is the etymology of “bugs”?

This strip has wings today.

Kinger: Did someone say something about a bug collection?

I see how it is. Jef puns all he wants and nobody complains, Stephan puns and it’s time for the pitchforks and torches. Double standard! :P

Nice Phineas and Ferb reference

I read once that English is the language that developed when the Romans yelled in German to the Vikings to “Keep off my lawn”.

Two terms often confused but much more benign than some others.

I admit I had to look up etymology (little wonder; I was a scientist with little interest in English in school). How facinating! What an interesting topic to have studied.

Wow the word “entomology” appears twice in my GoComics feed today. Also in Harley

I’m still waiting for Jeopardy to have the category of Entomology Etymology.

What’s the difference between an etymologist and an entomologist?

The etymologist knows the difference!

Check out Harley today to see some entomologists at work.

Unless the little miss has access to an etymological dictionary, all she would have to do is look up the (English) word in any reasonably good dictionary. They all provide etymologies. They require careful reading, though; cognate items are related to a given English item, not ancestral. Many, many people come away from a dictionary thinking that this or that English word comes from Sanskrit so-and-so, for example when say Skt. svasar is given as a cognate of English sister, not as its ancestor.

Not to be confused with atomology, which is becoming increasingly worrisome…